Search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing and of course Google play a key role in most web user’s online experience. Millions of searches are conducted every day to find products, conduct research and make purchases. Marketing your ecommerce website effectively via the search engines can help you win some of this valuable targeted web traffic.

Understandably, the search engines keep their search algorithm under wraps so as to maintain the quality of their search results. That said however, there are a number of best practice techniques that will stand you in good stead in improving your ecommerce website ‘find-ability’ via the search engines.

Get Your Keywords Right
Keyword research is fundamental to the success of your search marketing campaign – and forms the foundation for all subsequent activities. For example, good page rankings don't necessarily ensure targeted visitors who are going to spend or convert. If your keywords are not targeted correctly, you may end up attracting visitors who are not suited to your website.

What Is Your Home Page Telling the Search Engines?
While animated text and images can be used very effectively to draw attention to latest offers and best deals, keep in mind that search engines are unable to read Flash content. Include content and product links so that the search engines can read what your online shop is about and navigate directly to your product pages.

Optimised Product Pages
This perhaps sound more complicated than it actually is. Simply put, this means including your keywords in relevant areas of your product page; in the page title and product headline for example, and within the product description. Make sure to write your copy for humans, not for search bots (the search engine ‘robots’ that index your content ready for searches).

Other On-Page Elements
Additional content such as a number of titled product images, product reviews, user reviews, shipping terms and purchase recommendations can all work in your favour in assuring the search engines your website is relevant – and trustworthy – for inclusion in their search results.

Inbound Link Strategy
No search engine marketing plan is complete without a link building strategy. A healthy number of inbound links from trusted sources is a key component in demonstrating the popularity – and therefore relevance of your ecommerce store.

A company blog can be an extremely powerful tool for attracting links to your store. Additionally, when appropriate, link to product pages from your social media profiles such as Twitter and Facebook. As you acquire inbound links to your ecommerce store, keep in mind that quality is more important than quantity.

Most of the online marketing techniques covered here can be learnt and implemented yourself – but hiring the services of a search engine optimisation (SEO) expert organisation can save you a significant amount of time, keep you abreast of the best techniques and deliver real results.

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